Folding bench



arch 1954 B. u. TULLINEN FOLDING BENCH 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 18, 1947 Bern/m Tull/hen Patented Mar. 30, 1954 FOLDING BENCH Bernhard U. Tulllnen, Anchorage,

Territory of Alaska Application November 18, 1947, Serial No. 786,741

The present invention relates to new and useful improvements in folding benches and more particularly to benches used with booths in facing or opposed relation at opposite sides of a table.

An important object of the present invention is to provide a folding bench constructed and arranged to more easily enable persons to enter and leave a booth and thereby to enable the benches to be placed more closely to the sides of a table and thus to occupy less floor space.

A further object of the invention is to provide a folding bench including hingedly connected back rest and seat portions normally held in a rearwardly swung position and moved forwardly by a person occupying the seat.

A further object of the invention is to provide a device of this character of simple and practical construction, which is strong and durable, neat and attractive in appearance, relatively inexpensive to manufacture and otherwise well adapted for the purposes for which the same is intended.

Other objects and advantages reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a booth embodying a pair of opposed foldable benches.

Figure 2 is a top plan view.

Figure 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of one of the benches.

Figure 4 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the attaching bracket for one of the seat check bars, and

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the hinged connection between the back rest and the seat and the stop pin working in the slot of the check bar.

Referring now to the drawings in detail wherein for the purpose of illustration I have disclosed a preferred embodiment of the invention the numeral 5 designates the rear panel of a bench and to which the sides or wings 6 are fixedly secured at each end of the rear panel. A pair of the benches are usually positioned in opposed or facing relation at opposite sides of a table 1 to provide a booth.

A front panel or leg 8 is hingedly connected at its lower edge to the floor 9 of the booth by a conventional hinge structure III for the forward and rearward swinging movement of the leg. A seat I l is hingedly connected at its front edge to the upper edge of the leg 8 by a conventional hinge structure 12. The rear edge of the seat ll 1 Claim. (Cl. 155-116) is hingedly connected to the lower edge of a back rest l3 by a conventional hinge structure M to provide a raising and lowering movement of the rear edge of the seat and to provide a forward and rearward swinging movement of the lower edge of the back rest l3. The upper edge of the back rest I3 is free and may rest against the rear panel 5 of the bench or against a finishing strip l5 secured to the inner surface thereof.

A horizontal rod I6 is secured to the front surface of the rear panel 5 of the bench by means of brackets I! and to which the rear end of a pair of seat check bars 13 are pivotally supported, the bars l8 extending forwardly and formed with a longitudinal slot l9 therein. A stop pin 20 projects laterally from the rear side edges of the seat It and is slidably received in the slot [9.

The front surface of the leg 8 is preferably provided with a cushion 2| and the seat II and back rest I 3 are likewise provided with cushions 22 and 23 respectively, said cushions preferably being removably secured in position to permit convenient replacement thereof, when desired.

In the operation of the device the weight of the rear edge of the seat H and lower edge of the back rest [3 normally swings the rear edge of the seat downwardly and the rear edge of the back rest l3 rearwardly to position the back rest 13 vertically and to incline the seat ll downwardly as shown by the full lines in Figure 3 of the drawings. This movement swings the upper end of the leg 8 rearwardly or inwardly away from the adjacent edge of the table I to thus facilitate the ingress and egress of a person entering and leaving the booth. The weight of a person occupying the seat II when entering the booth will swing the seat downwardly, swing the leg 8 forwardly and swing the lower end of back rest I 3 forwardly as shown by the dotted lines in Figure 3, the stop pin 20 working in slot [9 of seat check bar I8 limiting the downward and forward movement of the seat.

A coil spring 24 suitably held in the front end of slot I9 of check bar I8 provides a shock absorber for the pin 20 during lowering of the seat.

In view of the foregoing description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings it is believed that a clear understanding of the device will be quite apparent to those skilled in this art. A more detailed description is accordingly deemed unnecessary.

It is to be understood, however, that even though there is herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention the same is susceptible to certain changes fully comprehended by the spirit of the invention as herein described and the scope of the appended claim.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

A bench comprising a frame structure including a rear and side panels mounted on a supporting surface, a leg panel hingedly mounted on the supporting surface in forwardly spaced relation to said rear panel, a seat hingedly connected for limited swingingmovement to the upper portion of the leg panel and extending rearwardly therefrom, a back rest having its lower end hingedly connected to the seat and its upper end slidably engaged with the rear panel, said seat and back rest being operable between the side panels, a horizontal rod mounted on the rearpanel, a pair of bars having longitudinal slots therein mounted for vertical swinging movement on said rod, pins on the rear portion of the seat operable in the slots, and springs in the slots engageable with the pins for yieldingly arresting forward movement of the seat.

BERNHARD U. TULLINEN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,199,260 Friedman Sept. 26, 1916 1,219,262 Daily 1. Mar. 13, 1917 1,695,571 Baxter Dec. 18, 1928 1,876,479 Weller Sept. 6, 1932 2,290,556 Hard July 21, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 18,251 Switzerland Jan. 3, 1899 164,790 Switzerland Feb. 16, 1934 419,613 Great Britain Nov. 15, 1934 726,797 France Mar. 14, 1932 

